Long-term FR-S/BRZ owners: what's the consensus?

Boy, the FR-S/BRZ twins sure are getting cheap.

When I bought my Honda Fit last year, deals like this were nowhere to be found. Now it seems like a steady stream of them are getting traded in and going up for reasonable prices. I love the Fit as a city car, but I don't make use of its versatility as much as I thought I would; most of what I cart around would fit in the trunk of a small car just fine, and I usually borrow my dad's truck for anything really substantial. On top of that, the driving position isn't great on the longer stints I occasionally have to take for work; I'm 6'2" with a 34" inseam and tend to prefer lower seating than the Fit. I've really liked the twins since they first came out, and wouldn't mind getting my hands on one before they all get snatched up by the flat-brim hat stance crowd, so I'm wondering how they work as a daily driver for those of you that have them.

Are they tolerable for long freeway trips? How's the real-world gas mileage? Fun to drive every day, or does it get old? What kind of little gripes and nitpicks do you have? Anything else I should know?

I have three friends that have traded theirs in. Seems like they just don't make a connection.

Completely manageable on trips. Space for trips is tight, but doable. Fun every day. I pull 28 in town, 34-37 on the highway. I'm serious. I short shift a lot.

My only gripe is trying to rev match. The e-throttle doesn't feel snappy enough, like there is a bit of lag. Maybe it's because it's new and fresh, not rolling on 450,000 like the 4Runner. Or maybe it's the boxer vs inline. I dunno.

I'd be somewhat leary about used ones. Do your homework. Get it inspected. These cars attract certain types of "people."

Not personal, but my coworker still has his. Just his daily driver. No sporting intentions. Granted, his commute is short and whenever he needs to drive any distance for work he gets a rental.

Appleseed wrote: I'd be somewhat leary about used ones. Do your homework. Get it inspected. These cars attract certain types of "people."

Yup, that's definitely on my radar. The one I posted is a certified pre-owned car, which I'd assume would be on the nicer side, since they are basically committing to a 100k factory-extended warranty on the thing.

Then there are examples like these.

In reply to pointofdeparture:

Really, salvage titles??? What in Hades do "people" do to these cars? Is it from hooning fails, or what?

WildScotsRacing wrote: Really, salvage titles??? What in Hades do "people" do to these cars? Is it from hooning fails, or what?

Well... I was instructing, in the passenger seat of a very nice BR-Z that made an unrecoverable mistake overtaking in the rain entering the front straight at Thunderbolt. We shaved a bunch of speed spinning around, then hit the inside pit wall at about 60mph, at a 45 deg angle, backwards. So, there is one example. The car looked surprisingly good except the broken suspension bits and the crease that went up the quarter panel and across the roof. DOH!

I am nine months and about 12,000 miles into my BRZ journey, so I will add my take on ownership.

-Roadtrips for the wife and I are great. While the space is limited, it is more than enough for two people. We have loaded the car with gear for multiday trips including clothes, hiking gear, food, etc. The back seats are useless for anyone over 5, so treat them as storage. (Although the nephews like it when they get to go for a ride in the "race car")

-Daily commutes are good. I drive 65 miles round trip every day, and the car soaks it up just fine. I average right around 30mpg, with a good mix of freeway, city and the occasional fun backroad. One thing I do wish the BRZ has was steering wheel audio controls. I love the simplicity of the car, but the touchscreen kinda sucks, and wheel controls would be nice.

-I never thought I would like/need them, but I really like having seat heaters! I live in California, and have no real need, but they are nice for a sore back!

-The car has been dead reliable so far, just oil changes and basic inspections. It does have the well documented "engine crickets" from the hpfp. But since there is no documented fix, and it doesn't seem to harm anything, I don't worry about it. I have done a few minor things that should help with longevity/track reliability.

Overall, I am really happy with the car. It had plenty of power for what it is. For those that think it is slow, you picked the wrong car, it is not a muscle car. I do wish the engine had a better note, it sounds like a diesel at low speeds, not very sporty!

my friends fiance has a BRZ and it is on its 3rd transmission(manual)under warranty, i think its been issues with syncro's. She just uses it as a DD with an occasional spirited drive. I have heard that its somewhat of a common issue

besides that its been a great car for her

Had my '15 BRZ Limited since Oct of '14. Just about 16,500 miles. No problems or issues other than the "crickets" and there is nothing to be done. I don't like how rattly the engine sounds at idle and low speeds, but again, not hurting anything.

I have Ground Control coilovers (375/425) and 18x9.5 RFP1s with 255/35 Star Specs, now that I work on a different side of town with terrible roads, it's really damn annoying to drive. Also an MXP cat-back and OFT (run E85 sometimes in the summer, noticeable boost.)

If you decide to lower it, do some kind of raised top hat in the back to help maintain suspension travel. I need to do a shorter rear spring on the rear setup to help keep it off the bump stops.

I'd like to get something a bit quicker, but after looking around at trade-in values, it seems the bottom has fallen out of these cars. So I'm trying to decide between putting it back to stock and taking the hit on depreciation, or just going ahead and doing the rest of the stuff I want to it, and get some dual-duty use out of it.

I love car and how it looks, drives. I think a header and Flex Fuel kit would give me the HP bump I want. And the car always gets comments everywhere I go with it.

edizzle89 wrote: my friends fiance has a BRZ and it is on its 3rd transmission(manual)under warranty, i think its been issues with syncro's. She just uses it as a DD with an occasional spirited drive. I have heard that its somewhat of a common issue besides that its been a great car for her

The only real issues I've read about are an occasionally crunchy or stiff 2nd gear, and guys breaking them making big power with Forced Induction.

Three and a half years into mine. I really like driving it except for the monster blind-spots. It is not a car that you carve up traffic in. Rear visibility sucks because of the high rear deck and loped rear window; this car begs for a backup camera.

The daily commute barely warms it up, but I have done a bunch of long drives and it is comfortable enough for me. The audio is barely up to receiving local radio stations but fortunately that is all I ask of it, so we get along.

The back seats are there, but so are the back seats in my MGB GT, like anyone will ever use them? Wasted space.

My opinion is that the car left the factory pretty much as good as it can get. Any performance enhancing mods will come at the price of longevity or comfort of other systems.

I have no love of six speed gearboxes. My illusions have been shattered. With shift points at 5500 to 6000 rpm being the norm, 1-2-4-6 is the shift pattern worn into my gearbox.

I usually keep cars for ten years, year five and onward will tell me how it is going to survive the winter driving. My NA Miata was as good a winter car as the FRS. The FRS auto-scroll windows do not get along with winter AT ALL.

One notable feature is that in Canada, it is $12,000 cheaper than a Miata by the time you get the car in the driveway. So while I would rather be driving a Miata, not going to happen at a $12k markup.

I think the OP might have found a perfect example to buy. Still low miles, good price, and being a CPO car it will have an extended warranty.

The tricky part with these things in the future will be finding one that hasn't been abused for "MaD dRiFtOrZ" action. I think the aftermarket potential sounds great on these but I don't know that I'd want to buy a used one far enough into the future when they are "project car priced". There are cars that are bought for the sole purpose of being beaten on, and this is one of them.

10 months in on my '15 brz. So far so good. The poor quality paint is my biggest gripe. In general, the way it does it's thing (handling, feedback, fun, etc.) is so, so good, that I regard it's quirks with fondness and overlook it's substantial shortcomings as transport appliance. I'm surprised the insurance is so low. The twins are a wicked homage to the Porsche 924.

TucoRamirez wrote: The poor quality paint is my biggest gripe.

It's a Subaru thing. Their paint has sucked for years and they've never cared to fix it.

TucoRamirez wrote: 10 months in on my '15 brz. So far so good. The poor quality paint is my biggest gripe. In general, the way it does it's thing (handling, feedback, fun, etc.) is so, so good, that I regard it's quirks with fondness and overlook it's substantial shortcomings as transport appliance. I'm surprised the insurance is so low. The twins are a wicked homage to the Porsche 924.

Insurance on my BRZ is more than it was on my '13 GT Mustang track pack.

I really wish they weren't so cramped inside. I'd be running STX right now if it was more accommodating for larger people (wide in the shoulders/chest). Other than the obvious blind spots and comfort issues, I'd have gotten one long ago as they check every box I need checked.

Yeah, lots of salvage title cars down here--all for like $12k, too.

I've had my FR-S since May 2012 and it's my daily driver and sole vehicle currently with nearly 40k miles. Overall it has been pretty reliable, never leaving me stranded at least. Not to say it hasn't been without some issues.

Issue #1 - an ECM failure. Idle was hunting and getting worse then when I was at the Texas 86 meet in 2014 after the oil temp got to about 240F and did some high rpm shifting the car started running rough and wouldn't disable the VSC or TCS systems. Luckily was using a Scan Guage to display temps and other data, so was able to clear codes and get it to run normally - until car was driven 'too hard' again with too high a load at anywhere above 215F oil temps. So to keep from going into limp mode had to baby the car 100% of the time and shift at low rpms. Took car into dealership and the ECM was replaced under warranty with updated ECM...I had one of the very early production cars with known bad ECM/mapping if high rpm's were seen. New updated ECM/Mapping fixed the issue...maybe.

Issue #2 - So within a weeks time the check engine light came back on, but at least this time VSC and TCS were not affected - they could still be "turned off" (which is how I normally drive the car all the time). P0351 code...if you drive the car hard, or track the car, or drive in a HOT climate you will eventually get this code. Car drives normally, maybe just barely perceptably with a little hesitation. Basically your ignition coil/spark plugs can't take the heat of the enclosed engine bay. There has not been a proven solution to this issue, anything you can do to vent the heat out seems to help though. If you plan on tracking the car then plan on adding coil packs as a consumable item.

I have bought a spare coil pack but not installed it, car runs fine and I can clear the code with my Scan Guage if needed. Runs fine without any code throwing in the cold months, once we get into spring and summer though put too much load on the engine with a fast acceleration and will throw code. Reason holding off on coil pack replacement is I am going to vent the hood first...and the vents I want that have been aerodynamically tested along with thermal data are about to be released and available.

Issue #3 - when the weather changes, mostly from cooler/ drier to warmer/more humid, and you first start the car - the first stop you make with it afterwards, it dies. Will restart with a some effort but run fine with no issues afterwards.

My FR-S was only ever tracked once, and that was about one month after first getting it; once it was "broken it in" and the fluids changed. Been daily driven since.

For me I will say I bought the car in spite of the fact I think the factory drivers seat is horrible. 6'2", 34" inseam, ~180lbs...main issue is the factory seat bottom is non adjustable in rake and barely has any. And for as low as the seat position is supposed to be, it's still 2" too high...have to bend my neck down a little and look up just to see traffic lights. Stock seat is my #1 complaint about the car...uncomfortable for any ammount of time, but especially for anything over about 20 minutes.

My solution was to save up and get a proper decent seat - Recaro Sportster CS. Made some custom brackets for a Recaro slide to fit it in...only thing is you gain barely any drop with aftermarket seats unless you hard mount them or are going to side mounted racing seats, so still need to crouch some to see intersection signals hidden by the roof. The Recaro's make ALL the difference in comfort and control though, besides feeling nice to sit in you also are connected like you are a part of the chassis with them as opposed to sitting on a seat that's on the chassis. Stock seat was an 'on the seat' driving experience, not a 'in the seat' or actually 'IN THE CHASSIS!' experience like I have with the Recaro.

I'll come out and say it now, I love the car and there is NO other car I want to drive or actually would consider replacing it with. It may be a little rough around the edges and require a little customization for driver fitment, but I've yet to drive a car that was perfect and most factory seats are terribte to me. The CHASSIS lets you forgive everything else about it.

It rides well on the highway (once you stiffen up the motor and transmission mounts and add in a tower brace) - it's an excellent little GT car that effortlessly cruises and gets good mileage doing so (solid 31mpg @ 80mph). Daily driving I average about 21mpg nominally, it's just too much fun to worry about fuel numbers - if I do restrain myself I could push it up to about 26mpg. The balance of the chassis is just very exact and linear, with nice feedback from the steering (once you get rid of the laughably horrible stock steering rack bushings and replace them with ones that keep it from moving around all the time.) It's honestly amazing how good a steering feel it has on the poor stock steering rack bushing design that can't even properly locate and control the steering rack...

As long as you keep the wheels and tires to better and lighter than stock, the ride quality, balance, and responsiveness gets noticeably better...

The FR-S is for the driver that doesn't mind putting up with some issues that for the most part aren't too major and making some changes if needed for ergonomics in exchange for a driving experience that is unlike most anything else. I've had mine for nearly 4 years, and I like it more now than ever before. Every drive as exciting as the last, NO MATTER WHAT!

Vracer111 wrote: The CHASSIS lets you forgive everything else about it.

This single sentence is all you need to say.

I really want to drive one with a Vorshlag LS swap.